1913 Scarce - Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland Illustrated by Charles Robinson
An uncommon and increasingly scarce early Charles Robinson edition of Lewis Carroll’s enduring classic, complete with all eight vibrant colour plates and over one hundred additional illustrations, in its striking original pictorial cloth binding.
Author: Lewis Carroll (Charles Lutwidge Dodgson). Illustrated by Charles Robinson.
Title: Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.
Publisher: London, New York, Toronto and Melbourne: Cassell and Company, Ltd., no date [circa 1913].
Edition: Early Charles Robinson illustrated edition, issued in the smaller pictorial-cloth format. A contemporary ownership inscription dated June 1920 establishes publication before that date.
Language: Text in English.
Pages: 179 pages.
Size: 8" x 6".
Binding: Very good original blue pictorial full-cloth binding, beautifully decorated in colours with Alice, the White Rabbit and the Mad Hatter at the tea party on the front board, and an additional pictorial design on the spine. Binding firm and attractive, with light general wear and some rubbing and fraying at the head of the spine, as shown.
Content: Very good content, bright, tight and generally clean. Noticeable toning and offsetting to the front endpaper, as shown, together with a charming contemporary gift inscription reading “To my Sweetheart, From John, June 1920.” Otherwise well preserved throughout.
Illustrations: Complete with all eight full-page colour plates by Charles Robinson, including the wonderful frontispiece “Off with her head!”, together with 112 additional black-and-white illustrations, many full-page or elaborately incorporated into the typography and decorative borders.
Estimate: $450–500 USD. An uncommon and scarce edition, particularly desirable when complete with all eight colour plates and retaining its original pictorial cloth.
The book:
A particularly appealing and uncommon early illustrated edition of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll’s masterpiece of literary nonsense and one of the defining works of Victorian children’s literature. Alice’s journey down the rabbit hole brings her into a dream world populated by the White Rabbit, the Caterpillar, the Cheshire Cat, the Mad Hatter, the Queen of Hearts and an unforgettable succession of absurd and fantastical characters.
This scarce Charles Robinson edition is especially desirable for its abundance of illustration and its striking original pictorial binding. Robinson’s interpretation combines richly coloured plates with intricate pen-and-ink compositions, decorative borders and imaginative page designs. Complete copies retaining all eight colour plates and the attractive tea-party binding have become increasingly uncommon on the antiquarian market.
The author:
Lewis Carroll was the pen name of Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (1832–1898), an English author, mathematician, photographer and Anglican deacon. He is remembered above all for Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (1865) and its sequel, Through the Looking-Glass (1871), works whose wordplay, logic puzzles, fantasy and surreal humour have captivated generations of readers.
Carroll’s Alice books occupy a unique place in English literature, bridging children’s fantasy, satire and philosophical play. Their extraordinary visual tradition also encouraged many of the leading illustrators of succeeding generations to reinterpret Wonderland in their own distinctive styles.
The illustrator:
Charles Robinson (1870–1937) was one of the prominent British book illustrators associated with the Golden Age of Illustration. The younger brother of illustrators Thomas and William Heath Robinson, he developed an elegant decorative style notable for flowing line, elaborate borders, imaginative compositions and finely designed pages.
His treatment of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland is among his best-known achievements. Robinson created not simply a series of illustrations but a richly integrated visual interpretation of Wonderland, ranging from delicate black-and-white drawings to dramatic colour plates whose distinctive Edwardian character remains highly collectible today.